Ian O'Riordan talks to Jim Aughney about looking after 8,000 runners and an army of volunteers for the Dublin City marathon

26/10/02: On Monday morning Jim Aughney will rise at 3.30 a.m. and leave the house after a quick goodbye to his wife and two children. He'll pray for a dry day and head for the city centre to begin putting a year's planning into operation.

An hour later on Merrion Square he'll deliver final instructions to a team of volunteers who will then start to close off 26.2 miles of road around the city. For the next few hours he'll watch the steady arrival of 8,000 nervous people, and then at nine o'clock he'll set them all off on the Dublin City Marathon.

He'll still be on Merrion Square at five that evening, the cut-off point for the last runner home. Later, he'll head to the Burlington Hotel for the awards ceremony and if he's lucky, he will start home around midnight, already thinking of next year's event.

For six years now Jim Aughney has been the marathon race director. In all other city marathons around the world it's a full-time position but he does it voluntarily, and in his spare time away from his job with Eircom. He's backed by a team of fellow volunteers who are all part of the Business Houses Athletics Association, the club that was originally asked to organise the event by Noel Carroll in 1980.

"To be honest, you do ask yourself quite regularly why you got into this," he says with a smile. "It's fair to say we're tolerated by the city, rather than embraced by it. Just organising the course takes about six months because we have to change it every year to please everyone from Dublin Bus and the Luas builders to the residents and so on.

"But when you're standing 50 metres from the start line on Monday and see the thousands of people behind it, all with the same ambition to finish, you do get a special feeling of satisfaction. Mostly I'm a fan of athletics, and a lot of it is out of love and trying to improve the race every year. And when I organise the perfect marathon I will definitely resign."

Since Aughney took over as the race director the Dublin marathon has taken some significant steps towards the sort of perfection he dreams about. Two years after 1,420 finished the first race in 1980 the entries peaked at 11,076, but by 1989 the race had lost a sponsor and just over 3,000 runners finished.

Now they have Adidas as title sponsors for the second year of a four-year deal. Entries have risen again to over 8,000, and 5,000 of those are from outside Ireland. They can put up €15,000 each for the first man and woman home and the presence of several African entries will ensure a world-class winning time.

"The event has grown so much now, also with the build-up series of races, that I think we do have to seriously consider a full-time race director. Almost all my annual leave goes into the marathon, and the rest of the time I'm trying to squeeze in lunchtime meetings, or meetings straight after work.

"If the marathon is to reach its full potential and maybe rival the likes of London or New York it would need a full-time director. That is something I might consider now at age 40, but I couldn't see myself doing it until I was 65.

"But the way the city handles it does make it frustrating at times. Most people do help out as much as they can, but I would love to set a course and stick to it every year. Dublin City Council do what they can but in a lot of areas we are tolerated much more than we are welcomed.

"And we're not running the race to make money. Any profit we make is ploughed straight back into the following year. It's the city itself that makes the money, plus the various charities that people are running for."

Though the event gets financial support from Bord Fáilte it is up the organisers to do all the overseas promotion. There are over 3,000 American entries representing some major charities and most of those will bring family members or support teams or coaches. The whole thing is worth around €10 million to the city and yet Aughney is often left wondering why Dublin can't embrace the marathon the way London, New York and Berlin do.

"I remember the World Cup qualifier against Iran last year, who had maybe 400 supporters, and in the papers the next day there was huge hype about what it meant to tourism. We tell people that were bringing in over 5,000 overseas entries and it doesn't seem to register.

"And I know the BBC pay heavily to get the London marathon on TV. We have to hire in somebody to produce our own coverage that goes out later on TV3. That's another missed opportunity."

On race day, however, these headaches are forgotten. Instead he'll worry about the 654 stewards out on the course and that they don't send anyone the wrong way. He'll be hoping the water stations don't run out of water and most of all, he'll be hoping everyone just has a good time.

One thing he doesn't expect to see this year is an Irish winner: "Last year's winner, Zacharia Mpolokeng of South Africa, heads a very strong African entry, but Conor Holt is probably the most exciting of the home athletes coming through. Teresa Duffy would have a had a great chance of winning the woman's race but has dropped out with injury, and one of the two Russian women are likely to win."